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The Color of Climate
The County With the Worst Air Pollution in the U.S. Just Voted to Drill for More Oil and Gas
Opponents of the move say most of the oil and gas wells will be drilled near Hispanic communities
This is The Color of Climate, a weekly column from Future Human exploring how climate change and other environmental issues uniquely impact the future of communities of color.
On Monday, the Kern County Board of Supervisors in California voted to approve an ordinance that will allow fast-track permitting of tens of thousands of new oil and gas wells. The vote was unanimous, despite a months-long campaign waged by a coalition of county residents and environmental activists and eight hours of public testimony in opposition to the ordinance that the board heard on the day of the vote.
Kern County, which encompasses the Central California city of Bakersfield and the surrounding area, already has more than 35,000 active oil and gas wells. The ordinance will allow oil and gas companies to bypass individual environmental reviews when they seek to drill new wells. Its opponents fear that will further threaten the public health of a county that has some of the worst air pollution in the United States.
